The Tennessee Valley Authority is set to depart this year

POLITICO

Jeff Lyash, the CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority whom President Donald Trump had criticized in his first term, will retire from the nation’s largest publicly owned utility later this year, he said in an email obtained by POLITICO.
He said in the email that he began discussing his retirement last fall with the board of directors and has had subsequent conversations since then.
The TVA CEO is the highest paid federal employee — although his compensation lags that of leaders for other similar-sized utilities.
TVA does not receive federal funding and instead relies on energy sales to cover its expenses.
Lyash, whose age was listed as 63 in a November federal filing, was first appointed by the board of directors in February 2019.

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In an email that POLITICO was able to obtain, Jeff Lyash, the CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, whom President Donald Trump had criticized during his first term, announced that he would be retiring later this year from the country’s largest publicly owned utility.

According to the email, he started talking to the board of directors about his retirement last fall and has since had more discussions.

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As the Board of Directors goes through the process of choosing a successor, I am making my plans public right now to guarantee a seamless transition. In the email, he stated, “Until a successor is appointed, I will continue to lead this outstanding organization.”.

During the first Trump administration, Trump fired two of TVA’s board members and criticized Lyash, who has been paid $10 million a year in recent years, for being “heavily overpaid.”.

Let this act as a cautionary tale for any board that is appointed by the federal government. In 2020, Trump declared, “You will hear two simple words if you betray American workers: You’re fired.”. The outsourcing of IT jobs abroad was at the heart of the president’s conflict with the federally owned electric company.

Although his pay is lower than that of executives at other utilities of a comparable size, the CEO of TVA is the highest paid federal employee. TVA depends on energy sales to pay for its operations rather than federal funding.

Lyash was initially appointed by the board of directors in February 2019 and was listed as 63 in a federal filing in November. He previously served at Duke Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before becoming the president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation.

In a statement verifying Lyash’s departure, TVA claimed to have some of the lowest energy costs and the highest reliability in the country, with retail rates below 80% of the country and industrial rates below 95% of the leading utilities.

Over the last ten years, TVA has invested over $22 billion in its power system, including $4 billion in 2024 alone and an additional $16 billion over the following few years for new generation and transmission, the company said.

Contributing to this report was Kelsey Tamborrino.

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